Whether you're interested in Irish legends or are familiar with them and want to read them over again, this book provides a decent handful of such tales. From the infamous stories of Cuchulainn and his short life, to the stories of Finn, and the tales that came before of the Tuatha De Danaan, the inhabitants of Ireland before men, and even a brief representation of the lives of the Saints that so changed the religion of Ireland to Catholicism, all are contained in this volume.
They are easy reads, and even has a handy-dandy pronunciation guide since the names are notoriously Gaelic and even more notoriously hard to pronounce. There are some slight spelling errors and continuity errors, but Marie Heaney can't be charged for the latter of these offenses. If there are continuity errors it is because of the structure of the legend, not so much her. As these tales were often passed from one generation to another by word of mouth, many minor things changed throughout until they were written down. Mistakes often happened this way.
Regardless, the stories are about jealousy, revenge, lust, and power as most stories are, and provide for a decent glimpse of what helped to make Ireland's culture and background what it is.
For my feminists out there, don't be surprised to see many women in the stories as rather vindictive witches. There are some other women who are strong warriors with nothing but pride on the line, but many of these stories were created in a very different time where society was based on masculinity and dominance. You'll be pleased to find, however, that there are very similar, vindictive, jealous men in the stories as well who are wild with temper often and quick to be brash which often means their doom. So, it's easy to see two sides of the fence in these stories from a sexuality stand point.
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